Activists restored a memorial sign on Politkovskaya's house.

The memorial plaque on the building where journalist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was shot has been restored for the 25th time.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on January 18, the memorial plaque, which had hung for almost 20 years on the wall of the building on Lesnaya Street in Moscow where Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was shot, was destroyed for the first time. Most of the temporary plaques installed by activists after that lasted less than 24 hours. By February 26, 24 plaques had been destroyed, including 23 temporary ones. By the morning of February 27, the 24th temporary plaque had been installed.

All plaques repeat the original text from the broken memorial plaque: "Anna Politkovskaya lived in this house and was vilely murdered on October 7, 2006." Representatives of a far-right organization designated as terrorist claimed involvement in the destruction of the first plaque. The man who smashed a memorial plaque was fined 1,000 rubles, though he denied any wrongdoing, claiming the plaque "fell and broke on its own."

03:34 02/17/2026
Attacks on Politkovskaya's memory have defined the limits of civic expression
Any civic expression, whether a plaque in memory of Anna Politkovskaya or a "Last Address" sign for a victim of Stalin's repressions, provokes active aggression among supporters of the government in Russia. Impunity encourages spontaneous acts of vandalism, even without direct orders from above.

Civil Initiative activists installed a new memorial plaque on the house of Anna Politkovskaya, SOTAvision (which is included in the register of foreign agents) reported tonight.

"The plaque, which the activists hung yesterday, once again lasted less than a day," the report stated.

The publication is illustrated with a photograph showing the banner-shaped plaque secured to the entrance railing with metal clamps.

In January, one of the building's residents admitted to destroying the temporary plaque. "Yes, I'm breaking it! And who gave you permission to hang it? She didn't live here, she had a safe house! This is my home! I didn't give you permission!" she said. She added that she wasn't the one who broke the original memorial plaque, but that the plaque "was always in her way."

As a reminder, Anna Politkovskaya, known for her articles on the war and human rights violations in Chechnya, was killed in Moscow on October 7, 2006. The court found that Lom-Ali Gaitukayev had orchestrated the murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rustam Makhmudov has been identified as the direct perpetrator, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya".

Anna Politkovskaya's last interview was given to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent an hour and a half before her death. In this interview, the journalist commented on Ramzan Kadyrov's career prospects. .

In 2025, on the 19th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's murder, residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg brought flowers to her grave, the Novaya Gazeta office, and the memorial to the victims of repression. Some of those convicted in the case of her murder have already been released, but the person who ordered it has not yet been convicted, Politkovskaya's colleagues recalled.

On the fifth anniversary of Politkovskaya's murder, journalists and human rights activists at a rally in Tbilisi highlighted her contribution to the fight for freedom of speech, demanding that those who ordered her murder be identified.

"Caucasian Knot" publishes materials dedicated to Politkovskaya on the thematic page "Politkovskaya and Estemirova," which also contains materials about Anna's friend, journalist and human rights activist. href="https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/125059/">Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on the problems of residents of Chechnya.

Source: https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/421193